Adventures of an Air Force Wife: Poland Day 4- Wieliczka Salt Mines and Kalwaria Zebrzydowska

On the 4th day, we left the house later than intended and headed to the Wieliczka Salt Mines. This mine is 1,073 feet deep and over 178 miles long. It's massive. The mine has been open since the 13th century producing table salt, but stopped production of table salt in 1996 because of the low cost of salt. It is on the UNSECO list of world heritage sites.

Info for anyone going: They do English tours every 30 minutes. There is a family ticket for 2 adults and 2 kids, so we had to buy an extra kid ticket. I think under 5 was free. No backpacks, but there is a luggage room. Plenty of parking available. The tour begins with you getting your own headpiece that the guide speaks in. The tour lasts 2 hours, and then there was also a museum available that was included in the price of the ticket. Because our day got started so late, and we were all getting tired, we skipped the museum.

The tour was amazing. You got to see different statues all made out of salt, walk through the mines like the miners, even along the tracks they used. There were 3 artificial lakes made for the tour, but they were cool. There was a small chapel we got to walk through. At this point, we learned there were 26 chapels total throughout the mines (Hello Catholic country!) Then we got to see the most beautiful of chapels that was huge and beautiful. My husband and the kids loved touching the walls and licking their fingers, and that's how we kept the 2 year old happy. It tasted just like you'd expect salt to taste.

An example of some of the statues and scenes in the mines

Some of the support beams within the mine. They were massive.

More statues... You could touch all of this and lick your fingers and taste the salt.

The mines

There was a very large church inside. It was all built out of salt and absolutely amazing.

The altar in the church. The chandelier is even made out of salt.

Family in front of the salt altar.

In front of the salt statue of St. Pope John Paul II.

An amazing Last Supper picture carved into salt.

Mary in the chapel.

Afterwards, we ate lunch at the mine with some traditional Polish food that was yummy- Periogies, Cabbage leaf rolls, and bigos (sauerkraut with sausage). It was fun to try these foods! They also had a kids play area, so we let the kids play for 15 minutes, then headed out of the mine. I also purchased a few bath salts, foot scrub, and body scrub for super cheap.

By this point, it was already 4pm. We had wanted to visit Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, a Catholic shrine that sees tons of visitors each year. It is 8 miles from where St. Pope John Paul II grew up, and him and his father spent a lot of time here. He even went back many times as Pope to walk the paths and pray alone. I totally recommend this place for Catholics, especially with children. There is the main Basilica, and then tons of chapels all over the hill. Here is a map (notice you can move the map to see all of them) We walked to a few of the chapels,but not many since it was so late. It was incredibly peaceful and quiet, even with the kids. They loved running through the woods, trying to find the next chapel. It was nice to give them that freedom, while we walked along quietly meditating on God's creation and getting the chance to view some of the chapels. I can completely see why the Pope would sneak back here to walk and pray. Most of the chapels weren't open, but you could still peak in. We are unsure if they were closed because of the time of day/time of year or are always. We got back to the car, made sandwiches for dinner, and headed home.